The Brazilian playwright Robert Athayde had his unsettling dark comedy “Miss Margarida’s Way” banned in his home country, due to its implied criticism of an totalitarian regime. However, there is no stopping the fireplug of an actress Susan Finque and director John Vreeke from letting loose this terrifying and charming 8th grade teacher to wreak havoc in a classroom setting at the West of Lenin. The Fremont theater space becomes the school; the audience becomes the students and Miss Margardia embodied by Finque, becomes the remarkable focus of this two-act exploration of the alluring joys and harrowing consequences of positions of power being abused.
In a jaw dropping tour de force, Finque is by turns coquettish, sympathetic, delightful, thought provoking and finally flat out terrifying. Finque brilliantly hits all these notes. It is no surprise that in the early going of the play, when Miss Margarida complains about the students’ bad posture, the entire audience quickly rearranges themselves in their seats to better please the formidable instructor.
When this 1971 work was presented at the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1977, the New York Times observed that the script didn’t so much offer a stream of consciousness monologue but rather an all out flood. Finque handles all the work’s challenges with aplomb, and is most effective when recounting some of the horrors Miss Margarida may have experienced as a student herself. The work is steeped in absurdist language but continuously insists we be aware of the very real and dark clouds hanging over the dynamic teacher and her brow beaten students.
Athayde’s work is most original and I never had the slightest idea where Miss Margarida was headed next, but I was always thoroughly entertained, no matter our destination.
“Miss Margarida’s Way” runs through May 22 at the West of Lenin Theatre in Fremont. For more ticket information go to https://outrageonstage.com/.